


A dime to spare

by Sneezysoul



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, i mean they do meet later on but hey whatever, i want the boys to meet so i made it happen, there's a brief filler character at the beginning, william is an anxious lil man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 20:36:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16709608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sneezysoul/pseuds/Sneezysoul
Summary: Big thanks to my friend, Cave (tigerclawblues), for fixing some things in this!This was done really quick, like most of my stuff, so sorry if anything is weird!-Just a chance meeting between a scientist and a magician.





	A dime to spare

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to my friend, Cave (tigerclawblues), for fixing some things in this!
> 
> This was done really quick, like most of my stuff, so sorry if anything is weird!
> 
> -
> 
> Just a chance meeting between a scientist and a magician.

William had been nervous all throughout the performance. He didn’t let it show, of course, since this was his job.

But that still didn’t mean he hadn’t been a nervous wreck throughout the whole thing. Little worries clogged his mind during the show, and even though it was all over - and had been over for hours - he still felt like something had to go wrong soon. His nerves were almost always right.

Consider it his other magical ability, if you will.

He is just finishing up the last bits of cleanup, using a broom to brush aside some rose petals. Charlie, his assistant, had stayed for a little while, but he’d urged her to go home and get some rest. 

He sighs happily at the thought of her finally getting some sleep. She had been so jumpy and worried before this show that it seemed she didn’t get even a wink of sleep beforehand. 

It was done, though, and for that he was glad - everyone who performed tonight was glad. They’d done spectacularly, and were even asked by various people to come back sometime soon.

Not that they were never allowed back to most other places, but actually having someone come right up to you after the show to ask you to come back? It felt a lot more personal and he genuinely felt like coming back here.

Y’know....despite how far this place was from home, and how it was a thrust theatre, having audiences from three sides of the large building. 

He absolutely hated those kinds, but the pay was worth it. He almost felt giddy from all the money they had made during the act tonight. If he wasn’t still feeling nervous, he would probably have slacked off on clean up and went out for a pop.

He wasn’t the only one here doing the cleaning; there were staff that were also helping. He could hear them in the back rooms, chattering to themselves as they put things back into the proper places.

It reminded him of back when he started this all - all the way back home in Liverpool. He had started out in a little homey place. A theatre so small, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was one from the looks of it.

He had an audience of maybe ten people back then, and he was happy for that.

Then he met Charlie and....well...

She was very enthusiastic about his ‘gift’. His ability to shape shadows into different things. She told him that the world loved magic. Anyone would love to pay to see him casting ‘living’ shadows from the ground, or lifting a chair with them.

She was his motivator, really. 

He blinks, knocked from his thoughts at the snap of someone’s fingers. Leo, one of the staff members grins, waving at him.

He was a large, overweight man. He had been the friendliest of the people here. William grins back as the man steps over to him.

“Hey, I can finish this up in here. You should head home, yeah?” the man says, reaching out for the broom, which William handed over gladly.

“Thanks! I - I uh.... wish you luck!” William says, fumbling for words - he never really stuck around for clean up after shows, so he didn’t know if it was considered rude not to talk to the staff. 

“Not a problem. Have a good night, pipsqueak.” The man says, reaching up to pat William on the shoulder, before walking on back from where he’d come from.

“You too!” William says loudly. It wasn’t really necessary to be loud, but he didn’t want the man to not hear him.

He waits a few moments, just in case that something he was nervous about from before decided to come knocking. After deeming everything safe, he gathers up his suitcase and picks up his book from the stage and starts to head out.

He turns back as soon as he’s near the exit, taking it all in.

It was always eerie, looking back to a darkened stage, the crowds already having gone home and everything all cleaned up, as if it were never used in the first place.

Sometimes.... sometimes he swore he could see things in the shadows he’d rather not see from these places.

The thought of seeing something makes him scared, and he turns around and makes his exit.

He makes sure to grab the coat one of his showmen forgot to take home from the front desk, and he makes sure to lock the place behind him. The heavy click of the lock seemed to finally put him at ease. 

The show was done. It was over.

He had nothing to worry about.

Turning away from the large front doors of the theatre, he walks over to the curb, and takes less than five seconds to cross the dark street. It was currently midnight, from what his watch told him. A bad time to be out, a part of him knew.

He walks down the street, the little hotel his show group had chosen his destination. It wasn’t a lavish hotel in the middle of town, but Charlie had been interested in it, and he couldn’t say no.

He admits he’s gotten used to luxury. Even when he went back to live at his brother’s house, the place was rather large and..well....luxurious may not be the word he was looking for, but it sure was a pretty place.

A cough to his right startles him so bad he jumps, nearly dropping his book to the ground. His nerves were on end, as he turns to whoever had coughed in the first place.

A man, standing as tall to just about William’s shoulders, stands there, his hair looking rather out of control, and a heavy coat on. William was about to bolt away from this new man, before the other grins and waves awkwardly.

“Uh...Hi. You wouldn’t happen to have a dime on you?” the man asks, his voice carrying an accent William remembered from around his own hometown. A familiar thing that makes William’s nerves go down just a tad bit.

The man pats at the large thing beside him - which, after a moment of squinting, looked like a Phone booth.

William clears his throat, and adjusts what he’s carrying, “I don’t believe I do.” he replies, “I...Sorry.”

The man looks him over, as if looking for a lie. Or maybe he was also having trouble seeing tonight. The streetlights didn’t seem to light as much as they were supposed to.

“I truly don’t have any money on me right now.” William continues, starting to feel like he’d been trapped, “but if you want, I’m sure there’s a few stores still open.”

The man looked a little ragged, as if he’d been running around town for far too long. At the desperate look he gave William, William felt terrible for not having just a single dime to give.

But...perhaps.... perhaps William had an idea.

He’d never tried it before, but just to put his mind at ease, he could try.

Before the man could say anything, William offers a smile, “I-I could.... uhm.... I could make the machine run without dimes, if you want me to try?”

The man looks surprised, “You can’t do that! - That’s nigh impossible without breaking the thing!” he balks.

William chuckles, “I’m...a magician! O-of course I can do it!”

The man snorts, incredulous, “Magic isn’t real.” he says quietly, “but if you can use some strange skills to help, I...would be thankful.” he continues.

William could tell there was a small bit of disappointment in the man’s voice. He worried that the man was disappointed in him, but the man didn’t seem to connect his tone with his expression, so perhaps it was something else.

He hoped anyway. William didn’t like being a disappointment one bit.

He goes into the phone booth, leaving the door open so the man could watch him work. It was probably dangerous to turn his back on the man, but William had his book open before he’d even realized it. The man didn’t seem to make him nervous anymore when he had the book open.

He flips through the pages of his book - he did happen to have a page with how to posses a body. He’d never used it before because it’d felt far too taboo. It probably was taboo. But this was a phone. A nonliving thing.

He could probably do this.

“Why the book?” The man asks.

“It’s my magic book.” William states.

“Magic isn’t real, though. Why do you need the book out?”

William didn’t know how to answer the man, so he just kept quiet, finally finding the page he was looking for. Hopefully the man behind him won’t freak out too much at this...

The shadow hands that rise from the book quickly grab the machine. The small man behind him jumps in shock. 

...The hands do nothing else.

William frowns, “oh, please, come on.... m-make it work, please.” he mutters to the book.

“W-what kind of science is this? A light reflection?” The other man says quietly to himself.

William was about to reply, and straightens himself up to do so, when the phone begins to buzz and give off sparks. William pushes the other man away as he himself gives the phone booth some distance.

He closes the book, the shadow hands disappearing like smoke.

Or maybe that was the phone...

“I.... uhm...” William starts, mouth a little dry from that experience. 

_what if that had been a person?_

“That.... was incredible!” the man beside him hops in excitement, something that knocks William away from the dark thought he had been about to think more of.

“I-it was?” William asks.

“It was! Why, in all my years, I’ve never seen someone use such methods before!” The man says. The smile the man had was just enough to keep William from correcting the man. It was magic, but if the man was this happy thinking it was science or whatever, he.... he was quite alright with it.

It sure beat the sad look the man held a moment ago, anyway!

“Can you share with me your secret?” The man asks.

William panics a little. What should he tell this man? The man didn’t believe in magic, but he was so much happier than he was a second ago...

He opens his mouth before thinking, “I.... compress the air into certain.... atoms?” he fumbles around. 

He didn’t know anything about science! He may have graduated from school, but it was a school more directed to the arts than science or math! He was an art man, not some.... smart man!

“With your book?” The man asks.

William.... can’t quite answer. Not the way the man wants him to answer - whatever the man wanted the answer to be, it was still magic.

He.... he can’t just tell this happy man it was magic.

The man was no longer disappointed, and even though he still looked tired, he was happy!

...William didn’t know why, but seeing the man like that made him happy as well.

“Uh!” He says, breaking the man from his questions for a moment. He awkwardly thrusts out a hand, “My name is William! N-nice to meet you!”

The man is still rather happy, but it seemed this calmed him down. He offers a sheepish look, taking the offered hand, “I’m Wilson. It’s nice to meet you, too!”

William hadn’t noticed it before, but Wilson wore fingerless gloves. Quite unusual for a man. He'd only ever seen Charlie wear a pair, and so he'd just always assumed ladies wore them.

Charlie might have also joked that they were a girl thing. Perhaps she was just pulling his leg.

They left go after a small shake, both acquainted. Wilson looks back to the booth, and, as if finally realizing that the phone was beyond repair, he frowns, a worried look on his face.

“Oh dear...I guess I won’t be making any calls any time soon.” 

William looks over the booth as well. In this light, it was a little hard to see it, but smoke still rose from the doors, and one could still hear the strange whirring noise the machine made, as if still trying its best to work.

William opens his mouth to reply, but then the phone gives off one last spark, coupled with an odd ‘chink’ noise.

And then dimes started pouring out of it. 

A mini waterfall of coins poured from the machine, making the loudest, strangest noise one could ever have heard. Some managed to be caught in the coin return slot, but the rest were left to tumble wherever.

One dime managed to get so far as to hit the toe of William’s shoes.

The two men remained speechless, William having to remember to close his mouth.

They looked at each other, and for a moment William felt like a little kid again, having just recently smashed the cookie jar. _‘What do we do?’_ was a look both of them shared.

After a few beats of silence, Wilson bends down, scooping up some dimes.

When he straightens himself up, he turns to William once more, “uh, thank you, kind stranger, for giving me a dime.” he says, slow and loud.

William nods nervously, “i-it was nothing, other kind stranger. Enjoy your phone call!”

They both turn away from each other, William feeling odd as he passes by the broken phone booth. 

What an odd man. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to want any trouble.

At least he got some dimes for another booth, perhaps...William hopes the man remains safe this night. It was rather late, after all.

Checking his wristwatch using the dull light of the street lamps, he groans. It was one in the morning, and he’d promised Charlie that he’d be at the hotel earlier.

Still...he couldn’t leave a man without a dime.

He pushes the thought of Wilson from his mind, instead worrying about Charlie and the scolding he’d get for being so late.

Oh, boy...


End file.
